Toyota In No Hurry to Build Lexus Cars in China

TOKYO—Toyota Motor Corp.’s upscale Lexus brand will bide its time on China, a senior executive said, holding off on shifting any production there despite rivals’ drive for bigger slices of its fast-growing premium segment.

“In China, it’s no secret that if you don’t start building cars you’re not going to do the big, big volumes,” Mark Templin, executive vice president of Lexus International, told The Wall Street Journal Friday, adding that it’s also a company goal to make cars where they are sold. Even so, he said, it will be some time before Toyota builds Lexus cars in China.